Malignant mesothelioma is a cancer that most commonly afflicts the pleura. The parietal and visceral pleura are layers of tissue that invest the lung and are lined by a single layer of mesothelial cells. The parietal pleura lines the chest wall and the diaphragm, is of a consistent thickness, and receives its blood supply from the intercostal arteries. The visceral pleura covers the lungs, has a varying thickness, and is supplied by blood from the bronchial circulation that drains into the pulmonary veins. This cancer arises from the mesothelial cells that line both the visceral and parietal pleura. The tumor may present as either a localized and discrete tumor or as a diffuse growth.
Caused primarily by occupational asbestos exposure, malignant mesothelioma is especially difficult to treat; patients tend not to respond to single-modality therapies, such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or surgery and have an expected survival of only 4 to 12 months. More than 2000 cases per year are diagnosed in the United States alone, with expected increases in frequency through 2020. Mesothelioma is not associated with cigarette smoking, but other possible progenitors besides asbestos contact, such as simian virus 40 are still being considered. Because of both a lack of adequate treatment options and the increasing incidence in both the U.S. and abroad, development of improved treatments for this disease is a necessary goal.
Cancer cell vaccines are intact, dead cells produced by treating cancer cells of a patient or animal with physical or chemical methods, such that after treatment, those cells will possess therapeutic or auxiliary therapeutic effect. The methods used to treat the cancer cells include radiation, or treating with organic solvent, etc. After introduction of the vaccine to the patient using injection, or other method, the cancer cell vaccine can stimulate or enhance the patient's immune response against the targeted cancer. Genetically-modified vaccine, polypeptide cancer vaccine, and gene/DNA vaccines are all vaccines having therapeutic effect on the targeted cancer, and made by using the cancer antigen or its fragments, or polynucleotides coding for such cancer antigen or its fragments, and carriers/cells containing the polynucleotides.
Cancer vaccine studies have become an important area in the fight to cure cancer and save the lives of patients worldwide. It has been recognized in the medical research and clinical studies that one of the key factor for the success of any cancer therapy is its ability to distinguish neoplastic cells, which should be killed by the chosen therapy, from normal cells, which should be unaffected, and left alone as much as possible, by the therapy.